


Amidst the Shadows

by heffermonkey



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-14
Updated: 2013-01-14
Packaged: 2017-11-25 12:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/639086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heffermonkey/pseuds/heffermonkey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Patrick sometimes gets lost in the shadows but that's okay, because Kimball is there to pull him out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amidst the Shadows

Cho had gotten used to not knowing all the details about Patrick Jane. They may have been more than 'colleagues' for nigh on a year but that didn't give him a key into all the hidden secrets Jane locked away inside. Sometimes he struck a nerve, something he said or did which caused Jane to give him a look, or pull back or just hover on the periphery with a cautious gait like Cho had just gotten a little too close for his liking. 

There were times Patrick still slunk off into the shadows of his darkness and shut him out but Cho never went far. Just let him slink until he emerged again and could see that he wasn't going anywhere. They both had things they didn't want to talk about - Patrick knew a little about Cho's past with the gang but he didn't know some details. Like how he joined, the initiation he'd had to go through, or the fact that he hadn't been able to really just walk away, not really. No matter what he told Patrick about shooting KS and turning his back on them, leaving a gang just wasn't that simple, even for the level headed, cool and calm 'ice man'. There'd been consequences and rituals to go through. 

If Patrick suspected more he didn't question and Kimball didn't talk about it. Maybe he would one day, but it wasn't really that important, not now. Kimball didn't like living out of the past any more than Patrick did. That didn't mean there weren't things they should talk about, the things that caused Patrick to not sleep at night. Or Red John - there was so much to say about Red John, so many things they were both afraid of saying out loud about the man. 

But in Jane's world, Red John created the shadows, they were dark and foreboding and tinged blood red. They were filled with macarbe happy faces and haunting, taunting laughter. Every now and then he got swallowed up by it and Kimball made sure he was there to pull him out when it got too suffocating. 

The shadows were just part of them and Cho had to accept that or he'd lose Patrick. He wasn't all that sentimental and relationships usually took a back seat to his career. Or they had until Patrick had slowly picked his way under his layers and settled in for the long haul. They connected, for whatever reason neither of them could fathom and though their faults were huge and their pasts hung about them like balls and chain it didn't matter. 

Because they could both live with the darkness, as long as they provided each other with a bit of light.


End file.
